Max Ophuls, the celebrated European director of such opulent classics as Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and La Ronda (1955) is perhaps not the first name to come to mind when discussing film noir, for his extravagant set designs and melodramatic leanings sit in firm opposition to noir’s minimalist hard-boiled aesthetic. However, Ophuls, a German Jew exiled in Hollywood during World War 2, made two films at the end of his American tenure which have come to be considered noir classics. Caught (1949), provides a harsh critique of wealth and power in upper-class American society, then comes a subtle and damning portrait of the middle-class family in The Reckless Moment (1949).
The latter film centres around Lucy Harper (Joan Bennett), a middle-class housewife whose life is thrown into darkness when her daughter Bea (Geraldine Brooks) accidently kills her low-life boyfriend Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick) after he suggests extorting money from her mother. Enraged, Bea hits him during a tryst in the family boathouse. She runs off, but unbeknownst to her, Darby stumbles, falls into the river and drowns. Lucy finds the body in the morning and manages to dispose of it. The police begin an investigation when the body reappears but there is nothing to link the Harpers to the death, nothing that is until Martin Donelly (James Mason) appears in Lucy’s front room brandishing letters Bea had written to Darby, given to Donelly’s dangerous associate Nagel as collateral for a loan. Now Darby is dead the letters have worth as blackmail material, and Donelly is there to extort the sum of $5000 in return for them. At this moment, the film’s emphasis shifts from the fate of Lucy Harper onto Donelly, who, enamoured with Lucy’s strong spirit and dedication to her family, begins to fall in love with her. He tries to convince Nagel to leave her alone, which ultimately saves Lucy’s family but dooms himself.
The arena of the middle-class suburban household is a downsize for Ophuls who was accustomed to staging his elaborate tracking shots within the palatial interiors of late 19th century Viennese society, but Ophuls skilfully uses the architectural constraint to ramp up the claustrophobia surrounding Lucy. She is frequently framed through the bars of banisters or interior widow frames, constantly caged in. Her husband is away on business and won’t be home for Christmas, and her son, father and daughter ensure she never has a moment to herself. As Donnelly puts it: ‘You’re quite a prisoner, aren’t you?’. Lucy dismisses the comment, but part of the film’s power is her growing realisation that she is trapped in the social-economic situation of a housewife with no money of her own to pay the blackmailers, while being beholden to an absent husband. Is he even on a business trip? Just why isn’t he home for Christmas? Donnelly’s moments of consideration towards Lucy point towards this elephant in the room without anything being directly stated, and the husband’s absence is one of the great unarticulated elements of the film. Unarticulated verbally that it. Ophuls’ great skill is to communicate the characters relationships visually through gestures, objects, composition and framing. And when one starts to look at the film in this light one character begins to emerge as central to the film’s dynamic: Sybil, the black maid.
Sybil (Frances E. Williams) has minimal dialogue, but is a constant presence on screen, viewed through internal windows in the house, working in the next room, or silently casting glances at the family as they converse. When she does speak, she has none of the exaggerated mannerisms associated with black maid characters of the day, she’s dignified and intelligent, understanding Lucy’s situation more than anyone, including Lucy herself. Frances E. Williams was a highly respected activist and actor who had just become the first black woman to run for The California State Assembly, someone who, presumably, would not take the role of a domestic worker unless she saw something worthwhile in the part.
Within the prevailing context of race relations, it’s perhaps hard to comprehend now just how radical a figure Sybil is for a film made in 1949, and how radical the relationship between Lucy and Sybil is. In one scene, Lucy and Sybil discuss family finances in a way that appears more like the discussion of husband and wife than employer and servant. This implied suggestion of equality between Sybil and Lucy becomes more evident during the ending, where Donelly kills Nagel and drives off with the body and letters in one last attempt to protect the family. Sybil and Lucy give chase, during which Sybil gets her only close-up in the film as she utters: “I liked Mr Donelly”. It’s a key moment, there is so much tied up in the statement. Donelly has risked everything for Lucy and her family, how does this sacrifice compare to anything else in Lucy’s life? Compared to a husband who can’t be home for Christmas, say? Only Sybil understands this, because, like Donelly, Sybil notices things, all her actions reveal someone who sees how much is put upon Lucy within the home. She can see that Lucy is in real trouble and she sees that Donelly is doing everything he can to help. Lucy finally breaks down, uncontrollably weeping over the dying Donelly’s crashed car. It’s left to Sybil to take control of the situation and drive them home. Donelly has given Lucy the letters and tells the police he killed Darby just before he dies. The film ends with Lucy, still in tears for Donelly, on the phone to her husband saying how much he is missed, framed by the banister bars.
Although Williams’s performance is understated and deceptively slight, she is Lucy Harper’s only confidant within the family, carrying much of Lucy’s emotional burden and supporting her at her lowest moments, yet she barely says a word, reflecting the reality of many domestic employees, especially those who are black. Symptomatically, Frances E. Williams acting efforts themselves went formally unacknowledged in The Reckless Moment, for her name appears nowhere on the credits. Why bother, the producers must have thought. She had only one or two lines.
Sandy Milroy.
Watch Movie at: https://archive.org/details/therecklessmoment1949